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A young woman’s body remained crumpled on the cold, dead grass for more than eight hours Saturday, just 100 metres from the 14-storey Etobicoke apartment complex where she lived with her mother.

Residents of the troubled public housing development known as Willowridge Towers, located near the corner of Eglinton Ave. W. and Martin Grove Rd. in the city’s west end, identified the dead woman as “Bridget” and said she was 26 years old, but they would not provide her last name.

She had apparently been murdered.

“There are obvious signs of trauma to the victim,” said Insp. Tim Crone.

A reporter who attempted to interview the woman’s mother in her apartment on the second floor of their building at 44 Willowridge Rd, was rebuffed by half a dozen young adults, who had staked out the elevator landing on the woman’s floor and who politely asked him to leave.

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However,

Rebecca Nsiah, who identified herself as a friend of the dead woman’s family, said the victim’s mother — whose first name is Yaa — immigrated to Canada some years ago from Ghana.

“I have no idea of the last name,” the woman said.

Three Toronto police vehicles were parked at the entrance to the apartment building, and yellow crime scene tape closed off an adjoining grassy expanse to the west, where police forensic identification specialists continued to comb the area for clues late Saturday afternoon, more than eight hours after the woman’s body was discovered at 7:30 in the morning.

Shielded by a grey cover, the woman’s body remained where it had been found, crumpled on the grass beneath a phalanx of electrical power pylons, right beside a grey late-model sedan.

Police have arrested a “person of interest” in connection with the death, but would not confirm the charges.

Crone said the person in custody was apprehended at a gas station in Mississauga.

“We are still dealing with that individual and trying to piece together the circumstances that led us here today,” said Crone.

Police were called to the scene following an apparent domestic dispute early Saturday morning and were also investigating two other locations they believe play into the history of the incident.

The building where the dead woman lived is managed by Toronto Community Housing, and a visitor said Saturday the complex has serious crime problems.

“This area is trouble,” he said. “We see the police all the time.”

But the man, who would not give his name, said Saturday’s killing was the first homicide to occur near the complex in the past 18 months or so.

“There’s been one stabbing — that’s all,” he said. “That was a couple of months ago.”

Late last year, a 20-year-old man was stabbed three times in the torso during an altercation in the lobby of one of the three buildings that make up the Willowridge Towers complex.

In 2008, 15-year-old Stanley Badu fell to his death from the 14th floor of one of the buildings at Willowridge Towers, as he and several friends tried to escape police seeking to evict them from an apartment where they had been squatting illegally.

Only 200 metres or so to the east of Willowridge Towers, residents of a neighbourhood of low-rise condo buildings and well-tended brick bungalows said their area is peaceful.

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